Dee, who taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago for 25 years, is the author of nine books in the field of classics. He has held two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships and has been a Visiting Scholar in the Classics Department at the University of Texas. A founding member of the CFI Austin Group, Dee has written many articles, including two for Free Inquiry magazine.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

NOTE: Due to a work commitment overseas, TOM QUINN, the scheduled speaker for Jan. 31 in Hollywood and Costa Mesa, had to postpone his talk until later in the year. Dr. Kirschner has kindly agreed to appear in his place.

Melvin H. Kirschner, M.P.H., M.D.
All Medicines are Poison! Making Your Way through the Medical Minefield

Sunday, Jan. 31
Note: the regular third Sunday lecture in January (only) has been moved to Jan. 31
11 a.m. in Hollywood; 3 p.m. at the Costa Mesa/Donald Dungan Library, 1855 Park Ave., Costa Mesa*

     How do you evaluate what medical treatments are effective, particularly when there are conflicting studies and advice? What are the consumer and medical field’s concerns with the pharmaceutical and insurance companies? Are there any effective alternative medicine treatments? As health care reform is currently being developed in Congress, Dr. Melvin H. Kirschner sets out to “remove the fog of confusion that clouds the landscape patients are required to navigate in their search for health care today.” He also will explain that medicines are effective but that they can be poisonous if not applied properly. Hence the title!

     In his lecture based on his new book, All Medicines are Poison! Making Your Way through the Medical Minefield, Dr. Kirschner describes the risks and benefits associated with the use of medicines, and explores the validity of other treatments, such as alternative medicine, and the failings and backroom dealings in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. A long-time advocate for patients’ rights, Dr. Kirschner has a long career in the public health field. He studied at Dartmouth and Brown, received BA and BS degrees from UCLA in bacteriology and public health, worked as a public health sanitary inspector and public health engineer, received an MA in public health from UC-Berkeley, and earned his MD at USC, which he followed by training at the Los Angeles County General Hospital.

*The library is next to the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Center, where the talks are usually held.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

Seth Shostak
When Will We Find ET?

Sunday, Feb. 14
Note: the regular first Sunday lecture in February (only) has been moved to Feb. 14

Please note: MOVED TO 2:00 PM

     The scientific hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence is about to enter its sixth decade, and there hasn't been a confirmed peep from the cosmos. We still don't even know id life at any level of intelligence exists beyond Earth. Could this mean that finding aliens, even if they're out there, is a project for the ages - one that may take centuries or longer?

     SETI astronomer Seth Shostak will peer into the future as exciting new technologies for use in the search for ET suggest that, despite the continued lack of contact, there is good reason to expect that success might not be far off - that within a few decades we might find evidence of sophisticated civilizations. Why this is so, what contact and what such a discovery would mean are the subject of his talk on the role of humans in the universe.

     Shostak, the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, has an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University and a doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. Shostak has conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies and published about 60 papers in professional journals; written hundreds of popular magazine and Web articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television; lectured on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford and other venues in the Bay Area; edited and contributed to a half dozen books and wrote the Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence for National Geographic; and been a Distinguished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for the past six years. Every week he hosts the SETI Institute's science radio show, "Are We Alone?"

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

Victor J. Stenger
What Can Science Say About God and the Afterlife?

Sunday, Feb. 21
11 a.m. in Hollywood; 4:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa

    The claim has been made that reason and science supply new and persuasive evidence for the existence of God and the afterlife. A creator God is said to be supported by the apparent fine-tuning of the physical parameters of the universe to make like possible. The afterlife is suggested by studies of past-life memories, near-death experiences, and various paranormal claims. Furthermore, quantum mechanics has supposedly provided reason to believe that consciousness is a separate entity from our bodies and brains and thus able to survive death. New York Times bestselling author Vic Stenger will examine these claims from the point of view of a physicist who spent forty years studying the fundamental structure of the universe.

     Stenger, who received a doctorate in Physics from UCLA in 1963, taught at the University of Hawaii, retiring to Colorado in 2000. He is currently am adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Stenger has also held visiting positions on the faculties of universities in Germany, England, and Italy.

     Dr. Stenger's distinguished research career has spanned the period of great progress in elementary particle physics to very high-energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. He also is the author of nine critically acclaimed popular science books about physics, cosmology, philosophy, religion, and pseudoscience. His 2007 book, God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist, was a New York Times bestseller. His latest books, which came out in 2009, are Quantum Gods and The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

Brian Fagan
Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans

Sunday, March 7
11 a.m.

     Who were the Cro-Magnons? Where did they come from? How did they survive the dramatic Ice Age climate tens of thousands of years ago? And what happened when they confronted those primordial humans, the Neanderthals? Brian Fagan, author of the New York Times bestseller The Great Warming, brings these early humans out of the deep freeze in his new book being published in March, Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans.

     Cro-Magnons, the first anatomically modern humans, had modern brains and linguistic abilities, a penchant for innovation, and all of the impressive cognitive skills of Homo sapiens. Yet the first modern inhabitants of Europe remain a shadowy presence, defined by more by their cave paintings - vibrant images that seize our imaginations after thirty thousand years - and stone artifacts than by the nature of their lives. Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges from glaciers, predators, and a rival species of humans - the Neanderthals. The story of the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons tells us much about how our forebears adapted to climatic crisis and sudden environmental changes.

     Brian Fagan was born in England, did fieldwork in Africa and taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His other books include Fish on Friday, The Little Ice Age, and  The Long Summer.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.